title: Surgical outcomes in lung cancer presenting as ground-glass opacities of 3 cm or less: a review of 5 years' experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) has become increasingly popular recently and more pulmonary ground-glass opacities (GGOs) are being identified. However, the treatment for these GGOs remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively review the clinical and pathological characteristics and to demonstrate the longterm surgical outcomes in patients undergoing resection for GGOs in our institute.
  
  
  METHODS
  From January 2004 to December 2008, we enrolled 50 patients undergoing resection for solitary pulmonary GGOs of 3 cm or less at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Patients with a past history of lung cancer, or multiple GGOs at presentation, or GGOs accompanied by a solid component of more than 50 percent were excluded. The patients were retrospectively reviewed and the rate and circumstances of survival were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 50 patients, 43 (86%) patients underwent surgery immediately after the GGO lesions were detected by the initial HRCT. Forty-six (92.0%) patients were diagnosed with lung cancer. Of this group, there were 8 (17.4%) adenocarcinomas with lepidic predominant pattern, 13 (28.3%) adenocarcinomas with acinar predominant pattern, and 24 (52.2%) adenocarcinomas with papillary predominant pattern. There was one adenocarcinoma that was mixed with small cell carcinoma. There was no surgical mortality overall, and the 5-year overall and disease-specific survival rates were 97.5% and 100%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The percentage of malignancy is high in pulmonary GGOs. Surgery results in an excellent prognosis in these patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Chi-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Duann
authors.forename: Jung-Jyh
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Po-Kuei
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Chien-Sheng
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Chih-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Han-Shui
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Yu-Chung
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Wen-Hu
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Hsu
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: ground-glass opacity; high-resolution computed tomography; lung cancer